100 Chevy Factoids

Chevrolet Centennial Timeline History of Chevy 1. Louis Chevrolet and William C. Durant co-founded the Chevrolet Motor Company on November 3, 1911. Chevy celebrates its 100th birthday on November 3, 2011. 2. A seasoned automobile racer and highly respected self-taught engineer, Louis Chevrolet was born in Switzerland on Dec. 25, 1878 and moved to France with his family as a child. He immigrated to North America in 1900. By 1902, his younger brothers, Arthur and Gaston, had joined him. As early as 1905, Louis Chevrolet was winning notice as a fearless driver of the brutally primitive racing cars of the period. He became a member of William C. Durant's famed Buick racing team in 1909. Working with a designer in a rented loft in Detroit during 1910, Louis Chevrolet began to lay out the plans for the prototype car that would bear his name. 3. The grandson of an early Michigan governor, William C. “Billy” Durant was born in 1861. By the 1890s, he was a highly successful manufacturer of horse-drawn carts that were distributed globally. Durant moved into auto manufacturing when business associates convinced him to manage the fledgling Buick Motor Co. late in 1904. Spectacular success at Buick gave him the wherewithal to found General Motors in 1908. Durant added Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Oakland and other brands to the GM roster, before a 1910 banking crisis forced him out. 4. Looking to build a new automobile after leaving GM, the irrepressible Billy Durant made a deal with Louis Chevrolet to produce the well-known racer’s dream car. In 1912, Louis Chevrolet‘s $2,150 Series C “Classic Six,” a luxurious high-performance six-cylinder model, hit the streets of Detroit. 5. In late 1913, Louis Chevrolet parted company with Billy Durant, leaving behind the rights to produce cars bearing his name. Louis moved to Indianapolis, where he and younger brothers Arthur and Gaston would become legends in the lore of Indy 500 racing. The Chevy bowtie logo, designed under Durant's auspices, appeared for the first time in an ad before 1913 was out. The bowtie badge first appeared on Durant's new, more moderately priced, Chevrolets for 1914. 6. The Model H line launched with a durable four-cylinder engine that helped build Chevrolet’s reputation as a dependable car. The basic design would power Chevrolets through 1928. 7. Billy Durant had his eye on the value-priced market from the very start of his involvement with Louis Chevrolet and, in late 1915, introduced the Chevrolet 490 into the low-priced field. Its $490 list price made it a direct competitor to the Model T Ford of the time. During 1916, Durant leveraged the success of his Chevrolet car to regain control of General Motors. 8. In 1916, Louis Chevrolet drove a Frontenac racecar designed by the Chevrolet brothers in the Indianapolis 500. Four years later, Gaston Chevrolet wheeled a Monroe-Frontenac to victory at Indy. After Gaston was killed in a racing accident, Louis and Arthur formed a company to produce speed equipment for racers that were essentially forerunners of today’s sprint cars. Louis also designed aircraft engines in the late 1920s. Along with millions of others, Louis suffered heavy losses in the 1929 Wall Street Crash. Returning to Detroit, he worked for several years in a Chevrolet factory. Louis Chevrolet died in Detroit, of complications from diabetes, on June 6, 1941. He was 63. 9. In 1918, the first Chevrolet trucks were introduced; they were a light-duty model based on the Model 490 chassis and a heavy-duty 1-ton chassis. Commercial body builders provided bodies. 10. Chevrolet formally became part of General Motors Corporation in 1918, while the company was under the direction of founder Billy Durant for a second and final time. After departing GM in late 1920, Durant created Durant Motors. The company produced Durant, Star, Flint and Locomobile automobiles, plus Mason trucks, before falling victim to the Great Depression in 1933. In 1940, Durant, nearing 80 years of age, built and managed a Flint, Michigan bowling alley that was a prototype for a proposed chain. After suffering a stroke while on a business trip in 1942, Durant moved with his wife to New York City, where he died on March 18, 1947. 11. In 1921, Billy Durant's successor at General Motors, Pierre S. duPont, turned to future GM chairman Alfred P. Sloan to help him evaluate Chevrolet’s prospects. Ignoring naysayers who thought otherwise, Sloan’s research convinced him that Chevrolet could become a globally successful value-priced brand. William S. Knudsen was brought in to run Chevrolet in 1922 and immediately set out to introduce a much-improved Chevy. The result was the well-received Superior model of 1924. By this time, GM was assembling new Chevrolets at a new plant in Copenhagen, Denmark—the first of a number of plants GM would establish to build cars in the regions and countries where they were sold. 12. In 1927, Chevrolet overtook Ford for the first time, with sales of a million-plus vehicles—more than double the 1925 tally. Colorful Duco finishes helped attract buyers to the popular Chevrolet models. 13. By the late 1920s, Chevrolet was a leading global brand, with assembly operations in numerous countries. General Motors India was established in 1928, and assembly of Chevrolet cars, trucks, and buses soon commenced at a new assembly plant on the outskirts of Bombay (now Mumbai). That same year, new Chevrolets began rolling out of a new GM assembly plant in Warsaw, Poland. 14. The 1929 Chevrolet Six was called “a six for the price of a four,” because major American competitors at the time offered only four-cylinder engines, at about the same price. 15. Chevy introduced “Knee-Action” independent front suspension to value-priced American cars when the feature debuted on the Chevrolet Master series for 1934. 16. GM de Mexico was established during 1935, with a plant built in what had then been a rural field outside Mexico City. Soon, the Chevrolet brand in particular was a favorite among Mexican car and truck aficionados. (Employees shown with 1938 Chevrolet pickup.) 17. The 1935 Chevrolet Master’s new GM-developed all-steel Turret Top was a first among value- priced American cars of the period. 18. The Chevrolet Suburban Carryall truck, introduced in 1935, was the first American station wagon-type truck-based vehicle to have a body made of steel and one of the first SUVs in the world. This introduction made Chevrolet the inventor of a completely new car segment. 19. In 1940, Argentina’s Juan Manuel Fangio, who later became a world-renown Grand Prix driver, guided his 1940 Chevy to victory in a 13-day event from Buenos Aires to Lima, Peru and back. 20. Civilian production of Chevrolet cars ceased on January 30, 1942, for the duration of WWII. Production of trucks for military use, including Carryall Suburbans, continued throughout the war years. Car production for civilian use was resumed on October 3, 1945 21. The new 1948 Chevrolet “Advance Design” trucks introduced during the summer of 1947 marked the first significant redesign of Chevrolet’s truck line since before World War II. New flow-through ventilation for the cabs of the 1948 trucks improved driving comfort. 22. Chevrolet became the first low-priced American car to offer an automatic transmission, when Powerglide was introduced as an option on 1950 models. The first Chevrolet Bel Air introduced hardtop styling to the value-priced field that same model year. 23. Chevy introduced the Corvette in 1953, marking the industry’s first production fiberglass body. 24. Bel Air became the top-line series designation for the restyled 1953 Chevrolets. GM E-Z Eye tinted glass was offered for the first time in Chevrolet cars and trucks that year. 25. On November 23, 1954, the 50 millionth General Motors car, a gold 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air, was featured in a nationally televised parade. 26. Chevrolet Chief Engineer Edward N. Cole introduced the legendary small-block V-8 in the all- new 1955 models. Since then, the Chevrolet small-block V-8 has powered more winning race vehicles than any other production engine. It ranks as one of the most significant engineering developments in Chevrolet’s 100-year history. 27. Capping one of the greatest years in its history, Chevrolet introduced an all-new line of light- duty Chevrolet trucks in March 1955. The Cameo Carrier, a limited production “gentleman’s pickup” that sported a uniquely styled pickup box, was one of the new models. The new trucks were available with Chevrolet's standard six, or the new small block V-8 engine. 28. In 1956 the “Dinah Shore Chevy Show” launched as a one-hour TV show, with Shore singing, “See the USA in your Chevrolet” at the close of each show. The show grew out of Shore’s earlier 15-minute programs and she was the first woman to host her own TV show. Shore had sung, “See the USA” since the early 1950s and the song was used in Chevrolet advertising after her show ended in 1963. 29. Chevrolet introduced Ramjet mechanical fuel injection in 1957 as an option on Chevrolet and Corvette models. It was the first fuel-injection system available on a regular production American car. 30. In 1957, the Chevy trucks offered factory-installed four-wheel drive for the first time, with the famous NAPCO-supplied “Powr-Pak” system. 31. The Impala was introduced for 1958, and would go on to become the best-selling traditional full-size car ever, with more than 13 million vehicles carrying the nameplate sold by the time the final rear-wheel-drive Impalas were built in 1996.

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